Adapted from: A Sweet Pea Chef

Yummmmmm. I love apples and pork together. This was pretty fun to make despite the messiness.

For some reason I couldn’t seem to find dried apples anywhere I went. Fresh apples were just as good but I feel like the dried apples would have given the stuffing a nice, extra texture to savor. I think I wouldn’t mind using a more sour apple next time to give it extra flavor. But all in all this is a really tasty dish.

Though I did have some difficulties cutting pockets into the pork. One of my pieces was long and medium thickness, while the other was fat and small. The fat one was considerably easier to cut… though I’m sure it’s because my sharp knife isn’t really all that sharp. As I was cutting, a memory of my dad filleting freshly caught perch surfaced, and I thought that a fillet knife would probably work pretty well here.

I probably should have bought cooking string for the long pork chop, it would have been easier to roll the stuffing.

Other than that, I ended up leaving the stuffed chops in the oven for an extra two minutes (for clear running juices).

Enjoy!

Adapted from: Big Girls, Small Kitchen

I really love Vietnamese food. It only gets better because now I can make Vietnamese sandwiches myself! One of my coworkers was really impressed that I had made this at home.

I’m not really a big fan of peanut sauces, but don’t get me wrong, I love peanuts, but sometimes sauces can be overwhelming. I gave this recipe the benefit of the doubt and bought some peanut-coconut sauce (aka peanut satay). I was really surprised at how subtle the peanut flavor was. It was really tasty. It could be that the chicken thighs were lightly coated and not just sitting in sauce.

I would have liked to add cucumber sticks now that I think of it. And I should have pickled the carrot sticks a little longer.

This is a really delicious and easy sandwich. And it’s an awesome cold sandwich the next day for lunch!

Rye Stuffed Pork Chops with Apple

Kimchi Soup

Adapted from: An Edible Mosaic

Tasty, tasty, tasty. I love crab. I tried really hard not to eat any before baking…

Make this now! Right now. I promise you’ll thank me. I’ll admit that I was a bit wary of all the ingredients but it doesn’t seem so bad once you start cooking. I do tend to like using as few ingredients as possible.

This dish was amazingly gooey. And crab. Oh, the crab.

It’s really easy to make but handle the cooked shells very carefully. It’s difficult to stuff them if they’re broken.

Spanish Prawns with Spicy Lentils

Crab Stuffed Shell Pasta

Rye Stuffed Pork Chops with Apple Thyme

Adapted from: Chef Wanabe

Oh man. I LOVE this.

‘Course I had to edit it a little. I couldn’t find harissa. I need to explore other grocery stores… And I couldn’t seem to find roasted red capsicums also. For some reason? But I was okay with that in the end.

I used chinese red pepper garlic paste & red bell pepper (and more red pepper flakes), respectively. But that’s it! I swear!

I’ve never cooked with chorizo or lentils before either. I was told by (normally) trusty sources that lentils need to be soaked – I found dried lentils as opposed to lentils in a can. So I did some research and decided (okay… I forgot to soak them the night before) that I could just simmer them for 10 minutes.

What I discovered that lentils are so small that they can be easily cooked in a liquid or simmered beforehand if not much liquid is present in a recipe. They were really tasty.

And it makes fantastic leftovers. If only I had remembered to make rice.